Eammon Jacobs reviews Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: The Official Movie Special…
By now, it’s obvious that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a resounding success. It’s already bagged the BAFTA for Best Animated Film, and an Oscar nomination for the same category. Whether it’s the best of all the webhead’s cinematic adventures will likely be debated by fans on Twitter for years to come. But something that (seemingly) everyone agrees on, is just how incredible the animation is throughout the film, and it’s clear that so much time, effort and love was poured into it. A new tie-in book from Titan Comics delves right into the production of the film, including interviews with the three directors, the writers and animators as well as examining all of the colourful characters that appear throughout.
One of the most intriguing parts of the book is seeing some of the concept art and initial sketches of the characters from a production stand-point. Since the film uses a variety of different animation styles to match each universe, the illustrators had plenty of scope to play with. For example, since Peni Parker and Sp//Dr have a distinctive Anime look, there’s an illustration showing Peni with a whole set of expressions that utilise that style. The magazine takes readers through each hero in the Spider-Verse team, yes – even Spider-Ham, and explains how they approached bringing them to life so that they each had a unique look in the film, rather than just one simple animation style. So with Spider-Gwen, they talk about how the light hits her suit, and that when she’s in costume she acts like a white silhouette.They also discuss their experiences when working with the cast, including one delightful anecdote on Nicolas Cage approaching his role as Spider-Man Noir, but we won’t spoil that for you.
For fans wishing to learn more about this individual characters, there’s a useful profile on each one of them, explaining their origin and when they first appeared in comics. While there aren’t any in-depth interviews with some of the stars of the film, there are the occasional quotes from them about their characters. This is more for people wanting a peak behind the curtain, to see what the producers, animators and designers were thinking when bringing these webslingers to the big screen. The same goes for the villain’s half of the book, they discuss their influences when it comes to the Kingpin, The Prowler and Green Goblin. If you haven’t seen the film, there is a spoiler for a surprise character – so here’s your warning for that.
The production of the book itself is great, there’s plenty of early sketches and pre-animation designs that show just how they started bringing the film to life in the early stages. It’s easy to spend quite a while just admiring the designs of the characters in the pages and reliving the movie through a mental picture, which is both a testament to the publication and obviously the film itself. If you’re getting Spider-Verse withdrawals before the digital and home release, this is the perfect solution to tide you over till then.
Eammon Jacobs
Originally published February 14, 2019. Updated February 16, 2019.
